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Friday, 1 January 2010

Best of the Draculas

You might remember my Best of series from 2007, (Best of the Bugeaters, Best of the Sequels, Best of the Hunters) Well, it's time for a Best of Dracula.

You would have thought this one would have been the easiest. Um no. Even though there have been hundreds of actors to play Dracula over the decades, there is less then a handful that people actually respond to.

The top four are also the most famous.

Gary Oldman

Bela Lugosi

Frank Langella

Sir Christopher Lee

What was it about each actor that made his portrayal of the count stand out in our minds?

Is it the balance they seem to bring to the character, half animalistic half man? Or is it the fact they all played him slightly damaged?Each actor gave Dracula their own spin, some focused on the fact he was partially based on the real Prince of Wallachia, while some focused on the fact he was not human at all.

Each of the four actors who have made Dracula a household name did so at different points in the last 70 years. Each being the defining draconic icon for their generation.

Lugosi and Langella each made him irresistible. Lee and Oldman each made him brutal.

4 different actors, 4 very different decades, 4 larger then life versions of the same man.